Ed Miliband asked Diane Abbott if he was "doing the right thing" when he fired her

11th December 2014

Diane Abbott MP revealed the Labour party leader asked for her opinion before he sacked her as Shadow Public Health Minister.

Speaking to Joe Watts, the Evening Standard’s political correspondent, Ms Abbott said: “When he called me into his office to sack me, he said to me in rather an earnest way, ‘Do you think I am doing the right thing Diane?’

“I said ‘Ed, it’s your reshuffle, of course you’re doing the right thing.’”

The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington also said she thought Ed Miliband’s speech on reducing the deficit was “fine”, but “quite short on specifics”.

Ms Abbott implied Mr Miliband’s policies were too close to Conservative austerity measures. She called for more "socialist choices".

Ms Abbott also addressed challenges facing Mr Miliband. She said core Labour voters had now found alternatives to the party and it was his job to win them back. She criticised New Labour for talking to their core working class voters, instead of for them.

She also discussed the forthcoming mayoral elections and how some party members fear the election campaign has been "engineered".